It presented a new way of understanding existing unsettled data while providing a new general paradigm.

“This discovery was not just a single experiment, as several large national laboratories around the world contributed.”

I was chosen to be one of the plenary speakers at the International Conference on Nuclear Physics in 2007. This is the most prestigious conference in the field, and is held only once every three or four years. I was one of the four speakers appearing during the first session. This prominent placement may indicate how much the scientific community values the research on which the article is based.

Yes, it describes a new discovery. Actually, there have been several discoveries indicating that not many neutrons can be added to the oxygen nucleus (the dripline is near), while more neutrons can be added to the fluorine nucleus (the dripline is far). This discovery was not just a single experiment, as several large national laboratories around the world contributed.

Fluorine has just one more proton than oxygen. Considering such a small difference, it was a big puzzle, and there was no theoretical explanation. This paper put forward an explanation from what was basically a new approach, while also presenting several new general perspectives on exotic nuclei. Namely, that the explanation for the difference between oxygen and fluorine leads us to a change of magic numbers in other nuclei, for example, silicon.

Our paper has shown, for the first time, that magic numbers of atomic nuclei are not constant, and can be changed due to the particular nature of nuclear force. The magic number can be found in electron systems of atoms, quantum dots, etc.

The magic number of the electrons of atoms determines the periodic table of elements. So it is quite important in a number of ways. It is a general concept, and dominates the structure of many-body systems. It is also stable and a constant in other systems. In atomic nuclei, the force is different—strong interaction—and there are two kinds of particles, protons and neutrons. These are two factors which make atomic nuclei different.

Magic numbers of atomic nuclei were first proposed by the physicists J. Hans D. Jensen and Maria Goeppert Mayer, and they received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1963, along with Eugene Paul Wigner for their discoveries concerning nuclear shell structure. Magic numbers have been believed to be a constant for all nuclei. And, although this is correct for stable nuclei, it is not necessarily the case for exotic nuclei. Our paper has shown, theoretically, that in exotic nuclei, some (not all) old magic numbers disappear and new magic numbers may appear.

As an application, magic numbers are important to the synthesis of heavy elements in explosive steller processes, e.g., a supernovae explosion. Although nothing has been proven yet, it is likely that changes of magic numbers also change the scenario of the synthesis of heavy elements.

I have been working in this research for many years. Although it was not commonly believed, I thought that there should be some basic effects from nuclear force.

It has impacts everywhere across the nuclear chart. It has changed the cross section of neutrino scattering of light nuclei, e.g., carbon. The idea initiated by this paper has meanwhile developed even further, and its applications are quite universal. This includes a prediction that magic numbers of superheavy nuclei are not constant. Their variations are also predicted.

This work gives more motivation to studies of exotic nuclei, which may indeed have some social consequences.